Google Doodle History: How did it get started?

Today Google is celebrating its 12th birthday by way of a Doodle on the search engine homepage, which Alan Ng explained in more detail earlier this morning. Whenever Google wishes to celebrate a certain anniversary or event, then the Doodle is their way of paying tribute – so how did it all start?

The history of the Google Doodle begun in 1999 when founders Larry and Sergey decided to play with the design of their logo following a visit to the Burning Man festival that year. That first Doodle was a simple design, but was the start of something big.

The next doodle came a year later in the celebration for Bastille Day; this time the Google founders passed the design work over to Webmaster Dennis Hwang. This was a huge break for Hwang, as he was then given the position as the chief designer for the doodles.

Over the years Google has designed more than 300 doodles, and that number will keep growing, as more events will be worthy of a doodle or two. What would you like to see on the Google homepage next?